Hi,
When you’re a supporter of a loved one with bipolar disorder, you have to deal with many emotions. Sometimes some of these emotions are even negative emotions. You may be dealing with fear. You may be dealing with unhappiness, or even depression. You may be dealing with disillusionment. You may be dealing with frustration. You may be dealing with despair. You may be dealing with hopelessness. You may be dealing with helplessness. You may be dealing with anger. You may be dealing with poor self-esteem. You may be dealing with hurt. And you may be dealing with resentment. These are just some of the negative emotions you may be dealing with.
But let’s go back for a minute. I want to talk about one particular emotion here: RESENTMENT.
Webster’s dictionary defines resentment as: “a feeling of indignant displeasure or persistent ill
will at something regarded as a wrong, insult, or injury.” Does that describe how you feel? Has your loved one done you a wrong, insult, or injury? Maybe they did something in their last bipolar episode, and you are resenting them for it. You may not have even realized how you felt.
But now that I am bringing it to the forefront…You realize that I’m telling the truth. If so, you need to confront it. You cannot go on resenting your loved one for something they did during a bipolar episode.
For one thing…You may be resenting them for something they don’t even know they did! They may have no memory at all of the event, while you do. That’s very common when you’re dealing with bipolar disorder. So the first thing you need to do is to talk to them about it. You need to tell them how you feel. You need to tell them what happened. And then tell them how they hurt you.
Give them a chance to make it right. Chances are, they’ll apologize right away. Because they probably didn’t do it on purpose or to hurt you. Like I said, they are probably not even aware of
what they did. And are probably not even aware that you resent them for it. Although they may know that something is wrong, and want to make it right. Give them that chance. Believe it or not…It will make you feel better than it will make your loved one feel.
Because carrying around resentment can make you sick. It can cause you to get stressed out.
And stress can lead to all sorts of things. It can cause you to get physically sick. It can cause headaches, body aches, stomach aches…And at worse can even cause heart attacks or
strokes. So you really need to get rid of your resentment. And the biggest way is to forgive your loved one. Can you do that?
Well, I have to go!
Your Friend,
Dave